Early Foreign Language Learning and Teaching

Evidence Versus Wishful Thinking

Marianne Nikolov, Stela Letica Krevelj, Marianne Nikolov, Stela Letica Krevelj

• Publisher: Multilingual Matters
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9781800418691
• eBook ISBN: 9781800418714
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Elementary Education
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Over the past six decades, the field of teaching modern foreign languages to young learners has come a long way, from the early surmises about the advantages of a young start to today's widespread integration of foreign languages into curricula in public and private schools. The chapters in this book bring together internationally renowned researchers who have been vocal in establishing early language teaching and learning as an independent area of research and novice voices who represent a new generation of devoted researchers to present a state-of-the-art volume on the topic. The authors address key questions about young learner second/foreign language (L2/FL) development, methodological issues when conducting research with young learners, L2/FL teaching pedagogy, language education policy, technology enhanced learning and assessment. Together, the chapters capture the reality of early FL development in the context of a globalized world and will be of great interest to researchers and postgraduate students of SLA and Applied Linguistics, specifically in the field of early language development and teaching languages to young learners.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Enriching the Tapestry of Early Foreign Language Learning and Teaching: A Preface
• 1 Learners can be Applied to Children, Teachers and all Stakeholders
• 2 On How One Would Teach English to a Dalmatian Dog
• 3 Innovations in Research On and With Young Learners
• 4 The Use of Verbal Report to Describe Strategies Used by Young Language Learners
• 5 Verbal Reports as an Instructional Tool for Young Second Language Learners: An Intervention Study
• 6 Upper Primary School Learners’ Interaction in Face-to-Face and Instant Messaging Modalities: A Focus on Metatask and Metalanguage Episodes
• 7 Translanguaging and Meaning Making in Young Learners’ EFL Classes in Israel
• 8 Young Learners’ L2 Vocabulary Acquisition Through Extensive Viewing
• 9 Culture-Related Vocabulary in Textbooks for Young Learners of English
• 10 Natural Semantic Metalanguage: A Bridge Between Languages in the Multilingual Classroom
• 11 Early Language Oracy Development: Challenges from Research in Multilingual Contexts
• 12 Children’s Voices on Starting English at the Primary vs. Pre-Primary Level
• 13 ‘Why Do You Learn Spanish?’ ‘To Play in La Liga’: Attitudes and Motivation of Young Learners of Spanish in Croatia
• 14 ‘I Didn’t Know Such a Thing Existed’: Young Adults’ Early Encounters with Literature and the Meanings They Attach to Them
• 15 Looking Back to Look Forward: Approaches to Young Foreign Language Learners’ Assessment in Croatia
• 16 EFL Teachers’ Perspectives on and Practices in Assessing Young Learners in Serbia
• 17 The Role of Aptitude in Young Learners’ Success: Domain-General or Domain-Specific Analytic Abilities?
• 18 Primary School L2 Learning: The General Empirical Picture and Specific Policy Issues in the Irish Context
• 19 A Case Study on Family Language Policy of China in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area